Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Friday, June 2. 2017Friday morning linksGirl stuns America's Got Talent judges with her mind-boggling singing ventriloquism. Third Detection of Gravitational Waves Confirmed To defend a higher minimum wage, San Fran looks at… banning robots Madison, Wisconsin, might become the next town to subsidize godawful sculptures. For first time, physician practice owners are not the majority That means they are not working for you The Era of the Drama Queens: Every Crisis Is a Triumph Cross-cultural sex differences in activities Transgender Athlete With a Mustache Wins First Place at High School Girl’s Track and Field Championship The paper fires its public editor for resisting the Resistance. Offered Assisted Suicide in Place of Treatment Just like Europe A Graduate’s Perspective: Thought Police Are Undermining Higher Education In one graph, why the #ParisAgreement is useless Here's What Federal Regulations Cost Your Family This Year CUNY's Curious Defense of Linda Sarsour Here's a List of Everyone & Everything Hillary Has Blamed for Her Loss Why Do the Young Reject Capitalism? Because they know neither history nor econ Was Obama administration illegal spying worse than Watergate? Bringing manufacturing jobs back to America turns out to be complicated "... nothing the liberals have done since last November’s humiliation has sought to expand the Democrats’ constricted base to include us normals. VDH: If German haughtiness works on a dependent Europe, it certainly does not always impress a wary America. The Left’s Unilateral Suicide Pact - After the Manchester bombing, liberals once again avoid the obvious—that Islamic terror in the West is an immigration problem. Palestinian wave of violence marked by increased female role Must be viewed as work for women and children. Funny about that. Must be a cultural thing. Via Samizdata:
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The young are not rejecting 'capitalism'; they are rejecting freedom---there is no such thing as 'capitalism'.
'Capitalism' is what people naturally do with their resources when left to decide for themselves. It is not a system, as Marx would have you think. It free choice. I came up with the following a while ago when I discovered that there doesn't seem to be an accepted definition of capitalism, beyond the 11th grade economics game show answer, "the private ownership of the means of production", which tells us nothing. Econ professors of all bents misuse capitalism to mean industrialization or corporate ownership all the time, even those who purport to support capitalism/markets.
QUOTE: Capitalism is a name given to the individual liberty or, as permitted, by the current entity that has monopoly on violence, to retain their personal earnings over that required for subsistence and use this savings, or capital to create wealth for their own self. The type of capitalism one has is determined by who is permitted to engage in investments to better themselves up to State capitalism, commonly known as total socialism. Laissez Faire capitalism has the fewest restrictions and permit the most individuals to better themselves. Crony capitalism is when friends of the office holder are given special leave to better themselves. This is facilitated by interventionism and is better called government cronyism. Socialism, in contrast, uses government to limit the individual ownership of productive capacity up to total socialism where the individual is permitted no ownership/control of productive capacity except for their direct personal skills and even then may be prevented by the overseers from using their skills in a job that requires them, instead being assigned other work. Under socialism, the liberty to better oneself is limited to government bureaucrats, controlling political party members and their cronies. The rest of the populace being slaves regardless of the treatment they receive. Precisely what makes a slave is that he is allowed no use of productive capital to make wealth on his own account. http://news.mit.edu/1998/triton
Global warming on Neptune's moon Triton Yup. America practices something vastly different than capitalism. If only the bone-ignorant right would realize that.
If only the bone-ignorant right would realize that they'd actually be conservative. The young don't want to work for a living, it gets in the way of their social justice warrioring.
So many things to comment on today. Our city buys "art", most of which I would call eyesore. The last one selected was done by an immigrant entitled "Coming together". So many complained it destroyed the beauty of the city park they finally moved it to another location.
One of our large hospital systems forced most all physicians to sell their practices to the hospital system or leave the system and the results have not been positive. As per a conversation with a youngish German while on vacation in Ireland I found the article to be accurate. Germany is saved and the US lost with our backwards ideas and insane Stone age Trump as president. I told him many in the US are afraid for Germany, he moved away from us. Assisted suicide
While I have some concern about abuse, I firmly believe that one's life is one's own property. Choices about end of life do not belong to insurers, but neither do they belong to societal do-gooders who would try to prevent one's choosing a timely and painless exit. In my own family I've seen people helplessly drag on for years is painful, miserable situations because there was no legal alternative. You're saying you want to kill them because their end of life is too painful for you to see?
Why not just kill them yourself? Use a pillow, no one will know. I think you misunderstood. I would NEVER make that choice for them. I'm talking about having that option for myself if I'm in their condition.
Honestly, many do. Knew someone who was in end-stage cancer. Had pain medications in quantity in hand at his/her home. Was in hospice at that time (medical personnel coming to the home). Person took too many pills on purpose near the end. Many pain meds given in the end stages of life slow the heart rate and breathing. Eventually, the body gives up.
Currently, end-of-life care is all about pain management. Yes, it's hard to watch someone die, but we don't know what is happening to that person inside their own head at the time of death. It looks painful and scary to us. This is all about OUR comfort with death. "A Graduate’s Perspective: Thought Police Are Undermining Higher Education"
Wrong verb tense. Re: assisted suicide.
I'm not a fan of assisted suicide or insurance companies making life ending decisions. But I would point out that insurance is just that; "insurance". It isn't "healthcare". When I lived in a different city the clinic there didn't accept my insurance. I paid cash. I got health care. That is exactly the same choice that these patients in the article had. The difference is that what these patients wanted/needed was extremely expensive and wasn't covered by the insurance. So in reality the entire article was really inaccurate and it's agenda was to force insurance companies to accept the very expensive treatments that would of course increase the costs/premiums for everyone. That may be a fair argument but if it is let's have that argument and not some straw man argument. Should everyone pay a lot more for their insurance so that some people in the end of life can have very expensive treatments that generally are ineffective and don't materially extend their lives? That IS the argument. But it gets worse. Because the truth is that there still won't be enough money (there will never be enough money to give everyone in America a Cadillac health insurance plan) so we will still have patients being denied essential services but at a much higher rate than today. IMHO this is all about forcing single payer on us and NOT about improving health care. In one graph, why the #ParisAgreement is useless. Get your boots on and keep your manure fork handy, Zach will probably weigh in before long.
The U.S. is no longer the leader of the FREEBIE world.
Stole that. Ventriloquist: I KNOW why you put that up! It's a Dunkin' Donuts advert! And I thank you. Only wish there were one near me.
Drama Queens: Take them out to be shot at, That should be dramatic. /sarc. CUNY: Leftists on parade. Hanson: "Instead, many of them believe that whenever Germany sticks to worrying only about Germany, the world is a far safer place — both now and in the past." Unfortunately, they're officially ignoring the "immigrant/refugee" situation for all they're worth. Linked at the Wisconsin "Public Art" story: Zara Pulls Not-Pepe Dress After People Complain That All Frogs Are Now Hate Symbols. WHAT?? Even the Peace Frog? Who are these Anti-Ranists? Poor Hillary. The whining eternal victim. She's trying for top place in the victimhood contest.
Hillary is even losing the victim contest to Kathy headchopper Griffin, who has been bullied by the Trump family microagressions hurting her feelings (and denying her a safe space) by saying mean things about her art. Plus, the Russians did it.
Those meanies just got Kathy "headchopper" Griffin's endorsement deal with Squatty Potty cancelled. Just because she is a female artist. Hillary never had any deals, such as her deal to approve uranium sales to the Russians in exchange for $50 million donation to her Clinton Crime Foundation.
So, Hillary also loses the victimhood election to the headchopper artist. Re: The paper fires its public editor for resisting the Resistance.
They had to save money somehow and what better way than to fire the person who exposed their dishonesty. Most Baby Boomers are ignorant of history and economics as well. Most people of all generations do "one step thinking" along the lines of "I'm struggling, so I wish the government would help." The argument for classical liberalism (what I assume you mean by "capitalism") is subtle and indirect —many people are simply to dull to follow the argument, and others prefer more direct reasoning.
Milennials and Gen Y (there's a difference) are skeptical of "capitalism" as practiced in the U. S. (really dirigisme + globalization) because it's been a raw deal for them. All the stuff that really matters now is harder and more expensive to get relative to similarly situated white people who were young adults in 1970s and 1980s. That's why they're skeptical. White Boomers were not competing with foreigners and minorities for jobs and real estate. White Boomers didn't have to take on six-figure student debt for higher education. The WW II generation trained and groomed Boomers to succeed them, while Boomers have been using Gen X/Y/Z and dumping them at the first hint of inconvenience. The population of the U.S. increased by 100 million people since 1980, and the vast majority of those people moved to our big cities and made them more expensive and less pleasant. I think it's pretty obvious why middle class white kids feel like they're not getting a fair shake — it's because they aren't relative to their parents. The young reject capitalism for 2 reasons:
1) Their parents or someone else is paying the bills, and they haven't yet figured out how the world really works. 2) They are just starting out (at the bottom) and think it will be too hard to achieve anything, feel hopeless, think work is boring, etc. and want things given to them instead. Really it's just about not being a full player in the economy. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere until I had bought a house, a car and had a full-time adult job in my field with benefits, including a 401(k). And I was almost 28 by that point. Most people get to the age where they understand the benefits of capitalism and set aside childish understanding of economics. Capitalism requires adulting, taking responsibility for oneself. If you fail, it is is because you failed, not due to some meany oppressor.
A large part of the problem is the modern no-failure attitude that pervades society. Life is a system. Goals are are suckers as they can be not reached. Your only goal should be daily improvement. But the American school system and society has come to only value "winners", not triers. High School sports, college admittance, jobs, etc., is all winner take all in the community mind. Your only value is the grade on your test, not how much you understand or improved. But reality is much different. Reality is about who keeps working at it. In the end, no one finishes the race of life, we either quit or die trying. It's National Donut Day, I'm a little disappointed Maggie didn't post that.
In these trying days, it's all about the middle, but donuts were the original marginal pastry.
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Tracked: Jun 04, 08:57